On My Radar: Kickstarter, Descent 2, and Fall In 2012

You know what's hard? Working a full-time IT job, doing the various and sundry things related to owning a house and keeping sanity with a spouse, grabbing big chunks of your free-time (mostly on weekends) to design your complex wargame, and squeezing in reading time wherever you can. It leaves scant time for blogging. Such is life.  

The gaming world hasn't stopped spitting out chunks of news just because I've neglected to write about it. Nope, it just keeps expanding so fast, it's getting damn hard to keep up with it all. So what's cropped up on my gaming radar of late?

KICKSTARTER 

Kickstarter has become something of an addiction for me. I bought in to 3 different Kickstarter campaigns over the past few months: Mantic's Kings of War fantasy battle wargame and new miniatures, the Goal System: Delves dungeon skirmish role-playing game and some neat-looking pre-painted dungeon terrain, and the unbelievably successful Reaper Bones plastic miniatures campaign which raised close to 3.5 million dollars. I'm excited about all 3 of them, and I'm confident that they'll all turn out to be great.

Opinions vary on whether Kickstarter is a temporary fad or the wave of the future. I believe it's the future, and I think it's a fantastic way for the little-guy to gauge interest in a creative idea and fund it without going broke. It's also beneficial for the more established companies looking to expand their offerings, while limiting their initial financial risk.

Kickstarter has opened up the world to a flood of more good ideas, more innovative products, and simply more viewpoints. Just like the millions of writers and broadcasters that now have a voice thanks to the ease of blogging and podcasting, Kickstarter is making small business more accessible to the masses. I do not doubt that there will be some lame ideas and some failures along the way; that's the nature of business. But in the big scheme of things, more choices and more chances at success is a WIN for society.

My only problem with Kickstarter is that it's so darn addicting. I find myself wanting to fund lots of things, but my wallet usually grabs me by the collar and shouts into my ear "What the hell are you doing Steve, if you donate to that game we might be eating dirt all next week!" You need to be choosy. After shelling out $500 on the aforementioned games/minis, I had to cool my jets. I ended up passing on Dreadball (which looks superb by the way), new miniature ranges by Red Box Games and Center Stage Miniatures, the Gauntlet of Fools and DungeonCraft board games, and the Fantacide skirmish miniatures game. All looked great, and they were all funded, so at least there was a happy ending.

I haven't jumped in yet, but the miniatures for Dominion of the Gods (by Comfy Chair) look absolutely fantastic, so my non-spending resolve is teetering as we speak. The Storm the Castle board game also looks pretty cool. Ah Kickstarter, you sultry temptress!

DESCENT 2nd EDITION

Despite being a big fan of dungeon crawls and fantasy adventure games, I have never played the much-loved classic board game, Descent, by Fantasy Flight Games. Time has always been the deciding factor with that game. Most people claim that a typical game of Descent takes 3 or 4 hours to play to conclusion, and frankly when I have that much time to game I'll opt to fill it by playing a mass-battle miniatures wargame such as Sword of Severnia, or several skirmish battles using Song of Blades & Heroes, SAGA, Gnome Wars, or something along those lines.

So it is with much curiosity that I read about the new 2nd Edition of Descent. There's a really nice review of Descent 2nd Edition over at the Game Informer web-site, which I recommend checking out. The thing that most excites me about the new version is that it has been streamlined and plays much faster. Being able to finish an adventure in 90 minutes to 2 hours has greatly increased my enthusiasm for trying this game out.

I'm not buying Descent just yet. I have to see how Goal System: Delves works out for my group. I like playing with my own 28mm painted minis and dungeon terrain, and the role-playing feel of that game, at least from what I've previewed so far. And with my limited time for gaming, I cannot really justify owning BOTH games, since Descent isn't exactly a drop in the bucket price-wise. But still, the new version of Descent really intrigues me. If you've played the new version, I would love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment on this blog.

FALL IN 2012

I recently pre-registered for Fall In 2012, the autumn miniature wargames convention held in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that's hosted by HMGS East. Of the 3 conventions that HMGS East runs, this one has the smallest crowds and is the most laid back, but I always enjoy it. For me, it's the last major game convention of the calendar year, and last chance to go buy some toys in person before the inevitable holiday crush.

At this point, I'm still not sure which of my buddies are officially going to attend, so I'm keeping my plans loose and flexible for now. The only thing I'm doing for sure is some shopping. But what should I buy? When you've been involved in the wargaming hobby for as long as I have, it's no longer a question of NEED, but rather a matter of WANT.

I'm swimming in unpainted figures, so that's never a big focus of mine at these shows, but dammit if there aren't some fantastic new ranges that have caught my eye. Those Fireforge plastic knights are stunning! And the goodies from Otherworld, Gripping Beast, Eureka, and Brigade (Gnome Wars) are always tempting. But what I really want is... hmmm... that's a darn, good question. What do I want?

Well, let's see... SAGA dice... Secrets of Wargame Design book (by Wally Simon)... Dux Bellorum (dark age rules) is a no-brainer must-buy.... and the Dux Brittaniarum rules by Too Fat Lardies are very tempting as well... I could really use a nice wide bridge and church, or maybe some dark age houses/huts, and will be checking out Miniature Building Authority and Architects of War for possible options... very tempted to take the plunge on some yetis (wendigo) from Crocodile Games, as my norse-style fantasy army could use them...

Though I probably won't find it at a wargames show, the King of Tokyo giant monster battle game is high on my list.

And last but not least, nicely painted fantasy or dark age / medieval minis are always #1 priority for me, since my painting time is very limited (gotta work on improving that in 2013).

Anyway, stay tuned for my FALL IN report in mid-November, and hopefully I'll take more pictures this time!

Convention Season is upon us

Summer is right around the corner, and that means game convention season is almost here in all it's geeky glory.

As a central Pennsylvania gamer, here are a few conventions that are on my radar:

ORIGINS = May 30 - June 3 at Greater Columbus Convention Center (Columbus, Ohio).
One of the largest tabletop gaming conventions in the USA. A heavy emphasis on board games and card games (with an absolutely superb Board Game Room), but with a solid dose of miniatures as well. Definitely worth a visit if you've never had the "big con" experience. Over 300 exhibitor booths makes this a shopping mecca for gamers.

NJ Con = June 8 - June 9 at New Jersey Convention & Expo Center (Edison, New Jersey).
With Historicon moving outside of relatively close driving range for me (45-90 mins), this small miniatures convention has caught my attention and might be worth a visit this summer. I love the fact that it includes both historical and fantasy/sci-fi gaming, and has a handful of terrific vendors slated to attend (including The Warstore, Eureka Miniatures, Miniature Building Authority, On Military Matters, and Age of Glory).

Historicon = July 19 - July 22 at Fredericksburg Expo & Conference Center (Fredericksburg, Virginia).
I'm really bummed that summer's biggest miniature wargaming convention has moved away from the Lancaster/Philly area down south to Virginia. Instead of day-tripping to the con, now I must decide if I want to make a weekend vacation of it, with associated hotel costs for me and my buddies. This is definitely a great con, with the best Vendor Hall and Flea Market for miniatures gaming enthusiasts anywhere. And Fredericksburg is a great little town to visit, especially if you're a Civil War buff (very nice battlefield to visit, fun Ghost Tours, quaint little town to explore on foot or by taking the trolley). So I'm still debating this one!      

2012 Blood Bowl Tournament to Benefit Childhood Cancer

Just wanted to share something interesting that I recently came across while browsing the web.

On May 19, 2012, The Adventurer's Guild (a terrific hobby game store in Harrisburg, PA), is running a Blood Bowl tournament that benefits the central Pennsylvania Four Diamonds Fund. The fund helps children with cancer.

The tournament will be held at the Masonic Lodge on 350 North Harrisburg Street, Oberlin, PA. Entry fee to play in the tourney is $25.

For more information and pictures from previous years events, check out the AGGBL.

It's pretty neat to see a tournament that not only provides plenty of fun for its players, but supports a great cause at the same time.

Pictures from Cold Wars 2012

Just wanted to share some digital pictures of several great looking games that I observed this weekend at Cold Wars 2012 (in Lancaster, Pennsylvania). Enjoy...

The first batch are from what I believe was a Weird War I or II game whose table was chock-full of interesting terrain and machines ... Some neat bi-planes, a windmill, mobile German cannon, towers, a graveyard, and assorted soldiers positioned in rocky hills and hiding in cover...

There was a cool Napoleonic era game where the cloud of musket fire (represented by swabs of cotton) contained flashing yellow LED lights, which neatly simulated the effects of muzzle flashes.

American Civil War Gnomes riding ponies through the desert in a Gnome Wars skirmish. I gotta say, I love the ACW gnomie cavalry. I'm not sure if the Island Native Gnomes they used for this game were scratch built or an upcoming release from Brigade, but they were really cool-looking, face-painted headhunters.

An eye-catching city scape for some urban fighting. I'm a big fan of buildings on the tabletop, so these piqued my interest.

Some ACW action in the cornfields. This picture doesn't really do the table any justice.

Fall In 2010 -- Quick Convention Recap

Last weekend (OCT 29th and 30th), I travelled down to Lancaster, PA for Fall In 2010, the third and smallest of the three annual miniatures wargaming conventions run by HMGS East. This year's event was held at the Lancaster Host Resort on Route 30 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

I had an absolute blast spending 2 consecutive days shopping for figures/terrain/paints/rules at the large Vendor Hall, hunting for bargain finds in the Flea Market, and observing some massive wargames in progress. I didn't play in any wargames this time around or spend any time at the painting workshops, but that didn't dampen my enthusiasm. Tiring as it is to spend 6+ hours on your feet shopping for toy soldiers and other geeky treasures, it sure beats the hell out of working!

My good friend Kevin and I carpooled down to the convention on Friday. Compared to the past fall conventions over the last 5 years, it seemed as if attendance was appreciably down this year and fewer games were being played. Part of that may actually be a mirage, and can probably be attributed to the move from the cozy confines of the Gettysburg venue to the more spacious Lancaster Host. But the fact that the con conflicted with many people's plans for the Halloween weekend definitely hurt attendance, and resulted in a few regular vendors (Splintered Light, Wargames LLC, the Last Square, etc.) not appearing at the convention. That wasn't a big deal to us; we had more room to maneuever through the flea market and shopping hall. 

I didn't leave the Vendor Hall empty handed. I scooped up 3 blister packs of Gripping Beast Viking hirdmen and 4 sets of LBM shield decals from the Architects of War booth.    

I also purchased a very nicely painted and reasonably priced undead warband (about 16 figures) which included a really cool dark necromancer, a skeleton jester, and ogre-like demonic hero.

Added to that was a McFarlane Dragon for $10, and 6 new pots of paint (some Privateer P3 and some Vallejo acrylics). All things considered, it was a nice little haul for about $100 total. 

I didn't find anything that tickled my fancy in the Flea Market, although Kev got some truly great deals on near-mint board games ($5 for Pirate's Cove, and $20 for Knizia's Lord of the Rings co-op game + first expansion) that I would have scarfed up had he not discovered them first!   

On Saturday, I took a 14-year old boy named Landon down to Fall In. It was his first exposure to miniatures wargames on a massive scale and it seemed like he had a really fun time. He mentioned that he would be interested in going again (perhaps to the March convention), so maybe I just brought another young-gamer into the fold. Let's hope so! 

We flitted from table to table, watching a bunch of games that were being played and soaking in the wargaming atmosphere. Just seeing the beautiful terrain, massive array of painted minis, and wide variety of games across every period imaginable is exciting. I know that's what really drew me into wargaming, and I wanted Landon to get a good taste of it. All of the pictures in this blog-post are from ancients games going on in the main-hall next to the Flea Market, but that was just the tip of the iceberg, and there were numerous games with much prettier terrain and larger hordes of well-painted minis. 

Landon's interests are focused mainly on World War II and sci-fi games (Warhammer 40K in particular), but he seems open to just about anything which is kinda cool for a young guy. After thoroughly scouring the flea market, he decided that the best way to spend his limited funds was to buy a unit of nicely painted space marines and a late 60's era plastic model kit of a Walther P38 pistol. Well played kiddo, well played.  

I snagged a lovely, expertly painted,  whip-wielding demon in the Flea Market for $10 (sort of a small-sized Balrog). But other than that, my flea market take-home was non-existant. Kind of a disappointment there to be honest.

I returned to the Vendor Hall and snagged 2 really well-painted Orc Chariots for $40 total, and was quite pleased with that pickup. I also visited the friendly folks at the Cavalcade Wargames booth and purchased some of their Samurai Orcs (freakin' awesome figs!) and a Minotaur that's not yet available in their online store. Not only do I like the range of figures that Cavalcade is releasing, but I'm always willing to support nice people in the hobby. So I'll surely be visiting them again at future cons. 

All in all, it was a great weekend. Hopefully, I will take some pictures of the new acquisitions and share them on the blog when I get a chance. Stay tuned.

PEACE!     

Out of Kilter

My life has been out of kilter lately. You can thank my Mother-in-Law for that. You see, she's been staying with us for over a month as she recovers from major surgery to fix her broken hip.

Oh, we've been getting along just fine. So I won't go into Mother-in-Law Bashing mode. It's just that having another adult staying in your home messes with your usual daily routines and really twirls all aspects of your life into unexpected directions. Couple that with the fact that I spent many October evenings watching and rooting for my Phillies in the major league baseball playoffs, and not a whole lot of tabletop gaming, mini-painting, or other extracurricular stuff was being done.

Of course as we all know, the Fightin' Phils won the World Series (WOOHOO!!!), their first in 28 years, so it was entirely worth it. But I'm glad the series is over; my heart couldn't take much more of that nail-biting, gut-wrenching excitement!

Anyway.... I've had no time or desire to blog lately. Hopefully, that will change sometime soon, once my life returns to normal.

At least one major gaming thing is on my horizon.... I'm heading off to FALL IN this weekend! Looks like all of my miniature wargaming buddies are off doing family-related things this week, so I'm going solo. That's a bit of a bummer, but such is the life of 40-something gamers.

This time around, I'm going to focus my wargame shopping on some cool stuff that I've consciously backed away from over the past year or so. Namely, unpainted miniatures. I already have overflowing tubs full of unpainted figures to paint, but it has been awhile since I've added anything new to my cache of tiny tin men. But it's time to unshackle my slobbering inner lead junkie and have at it. SULTAN... NEED... TIN... slobber slobba drip drip....

I recently became a member of the Old Glory Army. This shopping club, which costs $50 per year, entitles you to 40% off most products sold on the Old Glory website and at HMGS East shows. You're also entered into regular prize drawings for free goodies and get a set of 12 free specialty figures with your first order. You need to spend $120 bucks to break even, before you start realizing large savings. But that's not very hard to do, especially since Old Glory has their own massive miniature range to pick from, and you can buy models from Crusader USA (great line of ancients and dark age minis), Blue Moon (cool pulp, horror, swashbuckler, and Robin Hood figures), West Wind (love their Dwarf Wars and Gothic Horror ranges), and Ghost Miniatures (some classic fantasy figs -- great dwarves, ice trolls, orc, and barbarians).

But the thing that really sold me on the Old Glory Army membership was their recent release of Old Glory Painted. These are painted versions of some of OG's metal minis. They're initially releasing Romans and Zulus, but within the next few months we'll see a host of new historical periods offered (including Vikings, Greek Hoplites, Persians, Macedonians) and even Dwarves and Orcs. NICE! The jury is still out on the quality of the figs & their associated paint jobs, but I'm optimistic and hope to see some of the Romans for myself at FALL IN.

Besides whipping out the Old Glory Army card and spending money on the previously mentioned stuff, I'm definitely interested in visiting the Eureka stand. In addition to their awesome warrior Frogs (gotta get some!), I'm smitten with their new range of Beowulf figures which are truly excellent sculpts and full of character. The Empire of the Petal Throne stuff is also enticing. I'm hoping that Age of Glory will still have some Front Rank medievals on hand (they're not going to be carrying them anymore -- damn shame). These are my favorite models for 100 Years War and War of the Roses by far. And finally, I need to check out the WarGods stuff for assorted goodies (Anubi, Sebeki, Spartans, Typhons, Yeti, etc.).

Okay... almost finally.... I forgot about the cool stuff from Bronze Age and Hydra Miniatures. I'm not a huge sci-fi gamer, but some of their stuff is too cool to resist. The Hydra minis have a retro sci-fi feel that really pushes all the right buttons for me.

As for painted stuff, I'll definitely visit Stan Johansen's stand, as his fantasy stuff is beautiful and reasonably priced. Plus, he's a great guy and I love supporting the truly good people in this hobby.

Anyway... Enough rumblings for now. I'll report back here once I return from my journey down to Gettysburg and FALL IN 2008. It will be VERY interesting to see if the piss-poor economy has a negative impact on the convention. I hope not, but I fear it will hurt somewhat.

Reports from Essen

The largest tabletop games convention in the world is underway right now in Essen, Germany. Spiel 2008, which will draw approximately 150,000 people, is THE PLACE where hobby game companies release their new games for all the world to see.

I've always wanted to go to this mecca of game conventions, but have never made the trip from America to Germany yet. Hopefully that will come in the future, when the US economy and my fun-money budget are in much better shape!

I truly love boardgames, and especially conventions where you can Try and Buy, which is precisely what SPIEL is (or ESSEN as it's commonly referred to by gamers in the know). Since I cannot be there myself, I'm living vicariously through the daily news reports of Frank Kulkmann. Frank is a gamer and native of Essen, and his excellent daily round-ups can be read by going here: Kulkmann's Gamebox. Check it out for yourself; it's a great little read.

Cheers!

My ORIGINS Game Haul

Sultan Sevy (that's me in Orcish form on the left) reports about his trip to Origins...

Greetings, hobby game lovers! I'm back from Ohio. I spent a fun and exciting 3 days at the Origins game convention from June 27 thru June 29 in Columbus, Ohio.

In actuality, it was really more like half of a Friday afternoon, a good chunk of Saturday, and a quick Sunday morning last-chance visit. Prior to the trip, I hoped that I might have a little more time available to engage in some open-gaming, but unfortunately that didn't turn out to be the case. Bummer dude. Maybe next time. I still had a blast anyway.

The trip was bookended by a 6.5 hour drive on Friday from Harrisburg, PA to Columbus (we got caught in a long traffic jam created because a stretch of the interstate was flooded), and a 6-hour trip home on Sunday afternoon. In between those lengthy drives, I spent time at the convention and also wanted to make sure to spend some quality time with my wife Anna. She told me it wasn't necessary ("just go have fun" was how she put it), but anyone who sacrifices their weekend so their hubby can act like a kid again deserves some quality time! Anna is a casual gamer but wasn't too keen on going with me to the geek infested Convention Center, so she hung out at the hotel and worked on a cross-stitching project while I went on my game shopping sprees at the Origins Exhibit Hall.

My basic day consisted of:

1. Get up, get washed and dressed, and go to breakfast with Anna.
2. Make the 8 minute drive from the hotel (Homewood Suites) to the Chestnut Street Garage and park the car.
3. Hoof it from the Garage through the Skywalk to the Convention Center.
4. Make a beeline for the Exhibit Hall and shop 'til ya drop!
5. Carry packages back to the car -- a damn long walk when the games are heavy.
6. Cycle thru steps 3 to 5 as many times as necessary.
7. Drive back to the hotel around 6 or 7 PM
8. Go to dinner with Anna. (We went to the Cheesecake Factory and Smokey Bones, both located in the Easton Town Center, which is a superb place to shop & eat.)
9. Go back to the hotel and crash.

We added going to the movies to that fine mix on Saturday Night (we saw Wanted -- a really weird, far-fetched movie, but loaded with tons of action. Angelina Jolie is easy on the eyes too).

So what did I do while I was at ORIGINS 2008? See item #4... I shopped until I dropped!

There are very few things in life that stimulate the "shopping lobe" of my brain as much as tabletop games and toy soldiers. Since I usually go to 3 miniature wargaming conventions in central Pennsylvania every year (Cold Wars, Historicon, and Fall In), my focus at Origins was going to be mainly on board games and card games.

I stayed within my pre-con budget, but still spent a darn good chunk of change. Thank goodness the hotel was relatively cheap! By the way, here's a fond shout out to the folks at the Homewood Suites. It was a really nice place to stay (quiet, clean, comfy, plenty of space, free breakfast) and I would gladly stay there again.

I picked up 8 games (one was an expansion), along with some sexy new Chessex dice, a pack of pre-painted Confrontation minis (Wolfen), and some neat terrain from War Torn Worlds. I also purchased a copy of Campaign Cartographer 3, a software program for creating maps. I'm going to use it to create the world map and some battlefield scenario maps for the fantasy miniatures wargame that I'm currently developing (Sword of Severnia).

So what tabletop games did I end up buying?

• El Grande (Decennial Edition)
• Fearsome Floors
• Battue: Storm of the Horselords
• Last Night On Earth
• Drakon (3rd Ed.)
• Downfall of Pompeii
• No Thanks
• Cutthroat Caverns: Deeper & Darker

All of these games were on my personal Hot Games WishList, so I was pretty ecstatic about this haul of goodies. By adding these games to the batch that I recently picked up on our wedding anniversary trip to New York City in May (a group that includes Kingsburg, Colossal Arena, Cutthroat Caverns, and Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage), and several games I received for Christmas and still haven't gotten to play yet, I'm pretty well set game-wise for quite a long time. At least that's what I'm telling myself today!

So what are these new games all about, you ask?

El Grande is a game about spanish knights acquiring territory, and it's widely regarded as the definitive euro-game focusing on Area Control (a category of games that I really enjoy). This is a truly elegant game and one that I've wanted for quite some time.

The Downfall of Pompeii was another euro-game that I was after because the cool theme (getting your people to escape from Pompeii before the hissing volcano erupts and they become extra crispy) sounded too fun to resist. The fact that it was designed by Klaus Jurgen Wrede (of Carcassonne fame) and includes a volcano cone game piece is icing on the cake! The folks at the Mayfair booth suggested using M&M's instead of the wooden bits that come with the game so that you can eat your little people when they get drenched in lava. I guess gaming can be fun and tasty at the same time!

I really wanted a light, fast-playing card game that I could play with my family. No Thanks fits the bill and I've heard good things about it from members of the Dice Tower podcast whose opinions I greatly respect.

Everything else falls into lighter, beer & pretzels fun with themes that I absolutely love (monsters, zombies, fantasy dungeon crawls, and heroic battles). While I like a wide variety of games, I am unabashedly a person who gravitates towards exciting, colorful themes in games. When faced with the choice of a picking a dry game about finance, farming, colonization, or medieval merchants trading goods, versus thrilling games about war, knights, flesh-eating monsters, robots, baseball, gangsters, tanks, or trolls, well I'm gonna pick the later types of games in a heartbeat.

I stopped by the Red Juggernaut booth and was shown a demo of Battue. Not only does it look nice (lots of nice minis), the tile-flipping mechanic, card draws, and swarming style of play should make for a very chaotic battle game full of surprises. Matt Drake's review on his excellent blog (Drake's Flames) also played a big part in selling me on the virtues of this game.

I also stopped by the Flying Frog booth and saw a demo of Last Night On Earth. Like Battue, it comes with some very nice minis, and the production values of the game are just excellent. It's a zombie-killing adventure game with a heavy emphasis on theme and capturing the campy feel of classic zombie movies, rather than on heavy mind-taxing strategy. It's basically a fun little romp of blasting zombies before they eat you. Sounds like plenty of fun for me and the guys I regularly game with. I even got to talk to the very polite and soft-spoken lady who adorns the Lizzy the Shopkeeper card in the game's expansion set (Growing Hunger). I didn't even know who she was until I turned to see her gun-toting visage on a display piece in the Flying Frog booth. Kewl.

Fearsome Floors is a game about racing through a dungeon before it collapses on top of you and before a Frankenstein-like monster eats you for dinner. It's another beer & pretzels game, but since it's designed by Friedemann Friese (the man who invented Power Grid) it's bound to have some interesting strategy to it.

Drakon (3rd edition) is a dungeon crawling game designed by the famed designer Tom Jolly (the man who created the classic fantasy game Wiz-War among other games). It's a fast-playing dungeon crawl / strategy mix, with some nice production values from Fantasy Flight Games. I can't wait to try this one.

Lastly, I picked up the first expansion to Cutthroat Caverns, a game where an adventuring party cooperates in killing a series of monsters, but each character backhandedly tries to "steal the kill" and screw everyone else out of the glory. It's a lighthearted game of screwage with a fantasy twist. The guys at the Compleat Strategist in Manhattan told me I really needed to buy this some day because it made the game tougher and better, so I went ahead and took their advice.

There were a few games on my wishlist that I simply couldn't find (Manhattan, Aladdin's Dragons, Wallenstein, and Dragon's Gold), and a few others I passed on for now but hope to add to my collection some day down the road. But you just can't afford to buy everything you want. Nor do I have the room to store it all. In fact, I'm looking to sell off some of my other games on eBay to make room for the new stuff and recoup some of my expenses.

So that summarizes my game haul at Origins 2008. It was a blast. I saw lots of really cool games being demonstrated, lots of people having fun, and it got me really excited to start organizing some summer gaming get-togethers with my friends and family. I'm so loaded with new games now, that I probably won't be going back to Origins for a few years!

If I had to find fault with anything at Origins (which is something I really hate to do because there are much bigger things to worry about than finding perfection in life), it's that the miniatures gaming room was not nearly as impressive as I remember it in past years. Perhaps I'm spoiled by going to the 3 excellent HMGS East conventions each year and seeing the massive amounts of stunning games played there. Maybe I wasn't there at the right times. Whatever it was, Origins just didn't measure up to Cold Wars or Historicon in regards to the sheer amount of miniature wargaming spectacle or the massive variety of awesome toy soldiers to buy that's for darn sure. Origins is the place for board gaming; everything else (although fairly represented) comes second.

One final note to my readers: If you've never been to Origins, GO! There's so much to do, you'll have a hard time fitting it all in unless you stay on-site and devote several 10-12 hour days to it. If you live on the East Coast and love games, it's worth doing at least once in your life. I can't imagine you would be disappointed. And if you're a board game enthusiast, this is basically heaven. I've never been to GenCon, so it's not really fair to say Origins is better, but I can't imagine Origins being less-fun than GenCon from a board gaming perspective.

Anyway.... Sultan Sevy out!

Games Games Games! -- ORIGINS 2008

This past weekend, I made a last minute decision to go to the Origins game convention in Columbus, Ohio. It's a true gamers haven. What can I say other than I'm pumped!

The last Origins I attended was in 2005. That convention, along with the truly wonderful, in-depth games database at BoardGameGeek and the entertaining and informative Dice Tower podcast by Tom Vasel (along with co-host Sam Healey and former co-host Joe Steadman), were the things that really rekindled my current interest in board games.

I'm not a total newbie when it comes to the hobby gaming scene. I grew up playing lots of board games as a kid, teen, and young adult. From Talisman to Statis Pro Baseball to Slapshot to the 3M games like Acquire and Feudal and Win-Place-&-Show, there are several old classics that I still love to this day.

But post-college, my gaming focus shifted to other things (namely rotisserie baseball and miniatures wargaming). Part of that change was just a lack-of-time for multi-player gaming get-togethers. But part was due to the board gaming scene's slow fade into the sunset. At least that's the way things seemed in the mid-1980's. But from the late 90's onward, board-gaming has experienced a major resurgence.

As I sit here and write in June of 2008, the sheer number of good games available to the board game enthusiast is staggering. Whether you like light, family-friendly Euro games, highly thematic and colorful American style games (Ameritrash), quick playing card games, abstracts, or captivating 2-player wargames, there's bound to be dozens of games out there to suit your particular tastes. And there's really no better place to soak in the atmosphere of gaming as one of the mega gaming conventions (Origins, GenCon, or Spiel in Essen, Germany). If you love games, you really owe it to yourself to make the journey to one of these conventions at least once in your lifetime. I have a hard time imagining you would be disappointed.

While I don't get to game nearly as often as I would like, and my game collection is already big enough in most casual gamer's eyes (close to 150 games), the lure of NEW GAMES is way too hard for any true tabletop games enthusiast to resist. Even though I have easily 25 games in my collection that have yet to hit the table, there's always room for more -- although my closet is starting to disagree with me on that point! I know that in order to make room for new goodies, I'm going to have to start selling off those games that I'll never play again. eBay awaits.

So the biggest blip on my mental radar as I head to Origins this weekend is "what cool new games should I buy?" Here's my HOT LIST of games:

ADVENTURE = Fearsome Floors, Drakon, Last Night on Earth, Fury of Dracula, and Bootleggers.

CARD & PARTY GAMES = Wits & Wagers, No Thanks, Dragon's Gold, Odin's Ravens, Dragon Lairds, and For Sale.

EXPANSIONS = Battlelore (Goblin Marauders, Earth Elemental), Wizard Kings (Maps 5-8), and Carcassonne (Traders & Builders).

SPORTS = Pizza Box Baseball, and Blood Bowl 3rd Edition.

STRATEGY = El Grande (Decennial Edition), Manhattan, Hive, Aladdin's Dragons, Mr. Jack, Downfall of Pompeii, Fire & Axe, Railroad Tycoon, I'm the Boss, Jamaica, Power Grid, and Taluva.

WARGAMES / BATTLE GAMES = Titan, Crusader Rex, Conquest of the Empire, Command & Colors Ancients, Battue, Wallenstein, War of the Ring, Warriors of God, Quest for the Dragonlords, and Age of Gods.

FUTURE RELEASES / NEW EDITIONS = Age of Conan, Cosmic Encounter (FFG edition), Battlelore (Heroes), Monster Liner, and Wiz War.

I'm not Bill Gates, so obviously I can't afford to buy all of these games in one fell swoop! So if I had to pick a Top-20 Most Wanted Games today, here would be my list:

1. Fearsome Floors
2. Drakon
3. Age of Conan
4. Titan
5. Wits & Wagers
6. Hive
7. El Grande
8. Manhattan
9. Last Night on Earth
10. Mr. Jack
11. Blood Bowl (3rd Ed.)
12. No Thanks
13. Wiz War
14. Battue
15. Downfall of Pompeii
16. Aladdin's Dragons
17. Wallenstein
18. Conquest of the Empire
19. Fire & Axe
20. Dragon's Gold

I'll let you know if I purchase any of these tempting games at ORIGINS. I sure hope that I'm able to snag a couple of them!

Back in the Gaming Saddle Again

It has been quite awhile since I sat down at the table with my friends and played some good old fashioned board games and card games. Hopefully, all of that will change fairly soon.

February through mid-April is always a real killer for me with respect to my free-time. I'm typically swamped with preseason baseball stuff. Whether it's working on enhancing, selling, or fulfilling orders for Rhino Baseball during the day, or planning and managing all the events associated with HARL, my longtime fantasy baseball league, I basically have close to zero free-time during the 1st quarter of each year. I'm learning to deal with it a little better, but it's still far from perfect.

Once May rolls around, I start to get my life back again and can actually enjoy it a lot more.

Although I had hoped to get my on-again, off-again tabletop gaming group (the GODS) kick-started in early May, I was just too busy with other things to address that. Part of May was spent planning and going on a short vacation with my wife to New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore on a whirlwind east-coast city tour. We had a blast, despite the fact that it was rainy a few of those days. We went to see Young Frankenstein on Broadway at the Hilton Theatre, which was absolutely fantastic; go see it! We also visited the Liberty Bell and took in a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game in Philly, and visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.



My other free-time was spent doing an assortment of gaming-related stuff.

Some of it involved buying goodies on eBay. I finally scored all 4 packs in the Wave-7 expansion set for HeroScape for under $40. Those cool Templar Knights are finally mine! I also purchased a miniatures game called Monster Island, which involves (you guessed it) giant monster combat.

And finally, I bought some new miniatures (a bunch of Trollbloods made by Privateer Press), and an absolutely stunningly painted Troll Lord (shown above) painted by MidgardModels in Argentina.

I was pretty bummed with the Trollbloods, as they arrived from Canada in a zillion pieces and the painting was chipped in several places. They were poorly packed (heavy models wrapped in very thin tissue paper) and consequently broke apart during shipping to the USA. It took me well over 2 hours to glue everything back together again, and I'll be spending a lot more time than that touching up the paint jobs to a more suitable level. Oh well, eBay sales have generally treated me very well, but I guess you can't win 'em all.

I also made a very big boardgaming purchase at the Compleat Strategist in Manhattan. I picked up copies of Cutthroat Caverns, Kingsburg, Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage, and Colossal Arena. The guys at the Compleat Strategist in NYC were extremely friendly, and were kind enough to ship the games to my home in Pennsylvania for free (so I didn't have to get them soaked in the rain). Now that's excellent service!

Recently, I began my efforts to get the GODS gaming group going again. The GODS are a small group of friends and acquaintances that occasionally get together at my house to play board games, card games, and miniatures games.

I just setup the biweekly schedule of get-togethers for June, so we'll see how that pans out. Although getting friends to show up to play games on a consistent basis has been very difficult in the past (scheduling is always tricky when you're dealing with adults who have family commitments), I'm not giving up yet. I think it's just a matter of the group gaining some momentum and getting people to make regular gaming get-togethers a habit much like their other extracurricular events. FUN is NOT the problem. We always have lots of fun when we play these games. It's just scheduling the darn things. Of course isn't that true of just about any club/league/organization that you try to form? So I'm going to be patient.

With the pending onset of summer, convention season is also upon us in a Big Way. Over the next few months, we've got:

• Games Day Baltimore - June 14 (Baltimore, MD)
• Origins - June 25-29 (Columbus, OH)
• Historicon - July 24-27 (Lancaster, PA)
• World Boardgaming Championships - August 5-10 (Lancaster, PA)
• GenCon - August 14-17 (Indianapolis, IN)

I'm still not sure if I'm heading to Games Day (about 50/50 right now). I will definitely be going to Historicon. And I really want to go to GenCon, since I've never been there before. That's a very long trek for someone in Central PA, so I'd probably make a mini-vacation out of it and spread it over several days. Gonna run this one by the guys and my wife to see what's cooking there.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for an upcoming post covering my board game / card game wishlist, and information about a HeroScape campaign that I'm hoping to start sometime soon.

See you next time!

Pictures from Cold Wars -- Volume 3

Here's the final installment of pictures from the Cold Wars 2008 miniature wargaming convention in Lancaster PA. Unlike the previous two photo installments, these pics were snapped by yours truly (Steve). I took them on Saturday, March 8 while meandering around the Host with Geoff, another wargaming buddy of mine.


What's a pirate themed convention without some ships? Here's a bunch of them...

Meanwhile back on dry land, we've got some more gnomes duking it out for supremacy. First off are some Swiss fellows, followed by Germans riding giant bunny rabbits!




What's in store for you next? How about some large tabletop battles, leading off with the spectacular eye candy of the "big game" in the Host lobby.

And lastly, we end with some ancient hordes, a cavernous dungeon bash, and American Civil War action...

I hope that everyone enjoyed this little photographic journey through Cold Wars. Hopefully, we can take a lot more pictures at this summer's Historicon convention to share with wargamers everywhere. God bless and good gaming!

Pictures from Cold Wars -- Volume 2

As promised, here are several more pictures from Cold Wars 2008 courtesy of my picture-taking pal Kevin Sarnowski. Hope you enjoy Part-2 of this 3-part visual goodies series!

We start off with some photos from the beautiful Gnome Wars game. The Sikh gnomes are invading the village, and it looks like they have company. Is that a band of Ice Trolls heading in from the coast?

But wait, are those German gnomes advancing!

We liked this neat medieval village atop the cliffs, and admired a World War II game with scads of paratroopers dropping in from above...

Here's a big American Civil War battle, followed by some ship battles...

And finally, some close-ups of airships from a Sky Galleons of Mars game, and preparations for Roman chariot racing...

And that's the scoop for Part-2. I will hopefully get some pics that I took on Saturday (3/08) offloaded from my digital camera soon. I'll share those once they're ready to show.

Pictures from Cold Wars -- Volume 1

Back on March 7 and 8, I made my way down to Amish country and attended the Cold Wars miniature wargaming convention held at the Lancaster Host hotel & convention center in downtown Lancaster, PA. I thoroughly enjoyed my two days at the convention, which is the first of three HMGS East conventions (Historical Miniatures Gaming Society) held throughout the year in central Pennsylvania.


I had the pleasure of hanging out at the con with my longtime friend and gaming pal Kevin Sarnowski on Friday the 7th. We had a great time shopping in the flea market and vendor hall, took some time out to stop by the Paint & Take to paint up some French Foreign Legion infantrymen, and wandered around observing lots of ongoing wargames in the scads of rooms that make up the meandering layout of the Host.


I also really enjoyed talking to lots of nice chaps in the Vendor Hall such as:

• David McBride from Splintered Light Miniatures, a young southern gentleman and all around nice guy. I'm a 28mm gamer, but I've gotta say that their 15mm fantasy minis are quite cool and very tempting. I encourage you to give them a look-see.


• Craig Acheson from Acheson's Creations, who is one of the most enthusiastic, creative, and downright friendly people I've ever met at an HMGS convention. I came away from Craig's booth with a painted celtic hut, a colorful painted mushroom piece, and an unpainted viking long house. Great stuff; great guy.


• The happy-go-lucky Soderquist brothers from Bronze Age Miniatures, who drove all the way from Utah to come to Cold Wars and sell their awesomely cool martians, norse gods, and skeletal pirates. Now there's dedication! I bought some of the Norse Gods and can't wait to paint them up -- they're full of character.


• Neal Catapano from The WarStore, a big-hearted Italian American whose online store has become my #1 stop on the internet when looking for gaming stuff. My wife, who bought me a batch of Christmas gifts from The WarStore sums it up nicely... Neal rocks! It's really great to see a WarStore booth overflowing with goodies at the HMGS cons. I hope they can make many more of these in the future.


• I was surprised to bump into the always friendly Igor Olshanky in the vendor hall (he's IGWARG for you TMP-ers out there). Igor paints some very nice minis, and I've had the pleasure of buying painted figures from him in the past. Hope you did well in your Warhammer tourney Igor!

Suffice it to say that there are some really great people in this hobby if you just take the time to stop by and chat with them.


Moving on... Kevin brought his camera and snapped quite a few pictures of the various participation games. There was plenty of gorgeous eye candy for wargamers here. With Kev's permission, I'm going to show off some of his pictures on this blog. This will be part-1 of 3-part series. I hope that you gather some inspiration from these photos. Enjoy!














More pictures to come in Part-2. See you soon!